Our Lady Queen of Peace - Medjugorje

[mmecurie68]

The provenance on these photos is as follows: I went to a Catholic High School and belonged to the Legion of Mary. During my time there ('81/'82 - '85/'86) the Blessed Mother had begun appearing to a group of teenagers in Medjugorje, Yugoslavia (now Herzegovina). The leader of my Legion of Mary group, Sister Denisita White, CSJ, had another nun friend who was beginning to lead pilgrimages to the area where the appartitions were said to be occuring.

The original negatives for these photos were taken by the nun who was friends with Sister Denisita. Sister Denisita gave these negatives to a girl in my group, Lisa D., whose father owned a photo lab, and personally oversaw the developing of the copies.

I have had these in my own personal photo album from high school for at least 20 years. I wish I had written the date on the back of the photos, but unfortunately, I didn't. My best guess is circa 1984.

The photos were taken in sequence - one before the apparation was said to be appearing, the second taken as soon as the teenagers hit their knees and appeared to be in a beatific state as they conversed with the Blessed Mother. The nun taking the photos could not see anything different through the viewfinder of her camera at the time she was taking the pictures.

I had my husband scan them on an Epson RX 600 scanner at 300 dpi, and he did the negative manipulation with JASC photoshop. Don't ask me too many technical questions because I don't have a clue.

The small piece of tan schmutz on the far left size of the pic about 1 inch down is an artifact (like a small piece of food - God only knows what I was doing when I was cavalierly throwing these photos into an album) - I can't remove it without doing further damage to the picture. The upper right hand corner of the picture is also starting to peel away from the backing of the photo paper. I am going to get these professionally protected and framed to keep in my family as heirlooms.

Enjoy!

www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=3610860

www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=3610859

[aneaglesangel]

That's pretty cool!! I can't see anything in the original pics, but there's definitely something in the negatives!! I have a book somewhere that tells about the sightings of Mary! It's funny, I could never be called religious, but I do have a lot of faith, and Mary has always had a special place in my heart. I don't even really know why, like I say, I'm not religious. I do believe Mary has shown herself to these children! To me, it is a symbol of love and guidance, from the ultimate mother of us all!!

[lildebcc]

First thing I looked at in the pictures was the 'schmutz'. Thought that was the thing in quesiton.

I do not see anything on the original picture either. Was wondering if the negative is just showing up the clouds that are in the sky?

>^o.o^<

[aneaglesangel]

LOL! What's a schmutz?? Never heard of that before!!

[mmecurie68]

LOL - "schmutz" is German for dirt. The speck that I am talking about that is dirt is in the vertical picture on the extreme left about 1 inch down.

The scan of the vertical photo just doesn't come out true to the actual photo.

Matt M. has seen it in person and can back me up when I say that when you look at the actual photo, the figure is discernable from the background of the sky, which is more gray/steel as a figure in a white mantle with tannish hands in a prayer position and a tannish face.

It does show up way better in the "negative" contrast view. I think part of the problem is that as the light of the scanner moves across the glossiness of the photo, some of that critical definition picked up by the human eye (which for 99.9% of any other photos wouldn't matter at all) is lost.

If anybody has any advice on some approaches to try on the Epson RX600, please let me know. I'm willing to give it a try (or rather, make my husband give it a try....; ) LOL!

[aneaglesangel]

Yeah I've noticed when I scan pics they don't come out as clear as the original. I wouldn't mind seeing the originals! I love hearing stories about the sightings of Mary. I like how many times, it's children she appears to! Once a mother, always a mother, I guess, LOL!! As for getting better scans, I don't think you can, but if you have the negatives, they can put the original pic on a disk and that may give you a better online image??

[mmecurie68]

Well, access to the original negatives is definitely out. Sr. Denisita died at least a decade and a half ago - she "took the habit" in 1921 after entering the convent in 1917 - can you imagine? She passed away in the early 90's.

In the old days, when you didn't have a negative, you could "re-make" a negative by exposing film to the photo at a fixed ratio to get the same size negative that you would have created originally.

I can also try taking a digital photo of the picture with the 5.1 megapixel whiz-bang camera I got my husband this year for his birthday - that might capture what the scanner is missing.

I'll see what the hubby can do w/it...he's already protesting about how high the quality of the scans are as I type......LOL

[aneaglesangel]

LOL!! I don't know why, but I'm picturing your hubby looking like the "Water Boy" saying, this is some high quality reproducing here! LOL!! I'd love to see what you can do with them!! To me a deity who protects and loves children, will always have a place in my heart!!!